


In which Baz is scared of flying

by andonewillbringhisfall



Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell, Simon Snow & Related Fandoms
Genre: Fluff, M/M, they're flying somewhere but there's 0 context, v short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 11:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16325639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andonewillbringhisfall/pseuds/andonewillbringhisfall
Summary: Hello I couldn't think of a title so the title is the summary





	In which Baz is scared of flying

I walk up the aisle, scanning the numbers above the rows of seats as I go. Penny leaves me at row 57, magicking her bag into the overhead compartment (there are Normals on this flight so she probably shouldn’t, but most of the back is reserved for our class) and claiming the window seat. I keep moving until I get to row 61, and turn to find –

Baz. Of course, just my luck. He’s in the seat next to the window, seatbelt already buckled, staring out at the plane next to us. He barely turns his head when I ungracefully toss my backpack into the overhead compartment and sit down next to him with a sigh. He just shifts further away from me, his eyes glued to the window.

I take a second to stare at his profile – still no reaction – then turn back to mind my own business, stretching my legs to see how much room I have, rifling through the safety instructions in the seat in front of me. Penny’s only a few rows in front of me, and if I stretch in my seat I can see the top of her purple head. Trixie the pixie is sliding into the seat next to her, and Penny turns her head and says something that makes Trixie roll her eyes.

Right. I guess when Miss Possibelf was booking our tickets she just got everyone to sit with their roommates. Penny probably thinks she got the worse end of the deal. She thinks Baz would be great to talk to if he liked us.

I don’t notice anything odd for the next twenty minutes. Baz stares out the window, unmoving, while my leg bounces and I keep peering around me, waiting for something to happen. It’s not like I’ve ever been on a plane before. Baz is probably bored of the whole thing.

Just as the plane starts moving, backing out of the gate ever so slowly, I notice it. Baz’s hand, curled in a tight fist next to his thigh. He’s pulled his body as far away from me as he can, right by the wall, and his posture is stiff, his jaw tight.

I forget about the plane, I forget that I’m about to fly for the first time, watching him instead. We’re rolling forward on the runway so slowly I can barely feel it, and I only know we’re moving because every time I look out the window everything moves a little to the right. We speed up a little, and Baz’s other hand moves to grip his armrest.

I think he’s scared. Baz is scared of flying.

I’m expecting us to take off at any second, and I keep an eye on Baz so I’ll be ready when it happens – ready for what, I’m not sure. But we don’t take off, we just settle into a steady pace and keep moving around the runway. Baz’s knuckles are white, and when we speed up again, I think I hear his breath catch.

‘Baz,’ I say. If anything, he turns his head even further away from me, pointedly staring out the window.

I hesitate. ‘Maybe don’t look out the window,’ I say.

He doesn’t reply. The hand at his side curls tighter. Without thinking it through, I reach over the armrest and place my hand over his, curling my fingers around his as best I can. Now he turns to look at me.

‘Snow, what are you doing?’ he says, his voice low. Angry, maybe, or just scared. He doesn’t pull his hand away, so I don’t let go.

‘It’s okay,’ I find myself saying. ‘It’ll be okay. It’s perfectly safe.’

He scoffs. ‘What the fuck would you know?’

I shrug. ‘Just seems like they know what they’re doing.’

‘They don’t even have magic,’ he snaps, and then the plane suddenly picks up speed and he grabs my wrist.

‘Baz,’ I say. He lets go of me like I’ve burned him. I take his hand before he can tuck it away again, intertwining our fingers and laying our hands on the armrest between us.

And he doesn’t protest. He just turns back to the window, his grip tightening.

‘Really,’ I say, as the plane keeps moving and Baz keeps squeezing my hand. I want him to look at me; I think it’ll feel less scary if he can’t see that we’re flying. Agatha said you don’t even notice you’re flying once the plane is in the air. ‘If anything happens, we can **float like a butterfly** to safety.’

His lips twitch. ‘Not you. You’d end up stuck in the air forever.’

I roll my eyes. ‘I meant, someone will spell the whole plane. You were just going to let all the Normals die, weren’t you?’

‘Snow, shut up,’ he whispers, gripping my hand tighter. He’s crushing my fingers; I don’t really mind.

‘Okay,’ I whisper back. ‘Sorry.’

The plane comes to a stop. Then the engines start whirring loudly, and I know this is it.

I look at Baz. He’s still facing the window, away from me, but I can see that his eyes are closed.

‘Say something,’ Baz says suddenly.

‘What?’

‘I don’t know,’ he snarls. ‘Just talk to me.’

‘You told me to shut up.’

‘I’m taking it back.’ We’re moving again, faster than before. ‘ _Snow._ ’

‘Okay,’ I say, wiggling my fingers a little. ‘Okay. Um. I’ve never flown before. Obviously. I just assumed you had, but I guess maybe not. Agatha has, she’s been all over Europe. I used to have a photo of her in front of the Eiffel Tower as my laptop background.’

I go quiet. I don’t really know what to say to him. I guess I thought he might want to hear about Agatha.

He squeezes my hand. ‘Keep talking.’

‘I got a 75 on my Magic Words assignment,’ I blurt out. ‘That probably seems awful to you, but I worked hard on it and it’s more than I usually get.’

‘Good for you,’ Baz mumbles. His face is pale, even more than usual.

I feel the plane lifting off the ground.

‘I know you’re a vampire,’ I say conversationally. If that doesn’t distract him, I don’t know what will. ‘Even if we crashed, you’d probably just bounce right off the ground –’

‘Snow,’ he growls.

‘Right, right,’ I say. ‘Not helping.’ We’re in the air now. My ears are starting to pop. My hand is starting to go numb.

‘I think Ebb fancies one of the nymphs in the woods,’ I say.

‘And?’ says Baz.

‘And, well, she’s a nymph, so, I guess it’s not going to happen.’

The plane jolts. Baz seems to shrink back into his chair.

‘Did you know there’s a floor in the Cloisters that just repeats everything that happened on the floor below one day later?’

No response. I’m not great with words, especially not around Baz, but I know right now he needs me to keep talking, so I do. I tell him about how Trixie leaves pixie dust everywhere she goes and Penny hates it. Then I talk about Rhys and Gareth’s bet that Gareth can figure out how to talk to the snow devils and make them follow his orders. (They’re not even fully sentient.) Then I start telling him about my summers, as if he could care less about my orphan stories, but he turns his head towards me and listens.

Everything seems fine – I think we’re about as high as we’re going to go, and I can see clouds underneath us and the plane barely feels like it’s moving – and Baz’s grip on my hand starts to loosen. Then all of a sudden we’re turning, the plane dipping on the left, and he’s freaked out again.

‘Penelope thinks I have a crush on you,’ I say, because it’s all I have left. It works; he looks at me and his hand goes slack in mine. I have his attention now.

‘What?’

‘Um,’ I say, ‘because I’m always following you around and going to your football games, and she says talking to me about you is like talking to the Mad Hatter about tea.’

The plane is steady again. Baz is still looking at me.

‘And what do you think?’ he says finally.

I hesitate. I’ve never been good at hiding the truth, anyway.

‘I think she might be right,’ I say, shrugging with one shoulder.

He says nothing, just watches me for a long moment, then turns his gaze back to the sky.

But he doesn’t let go of my hand.

 

***

 

We stay like that for the entire flight. Not talking, just holding hands, right up until we land and the seatbelt sign goes out.

As we’re walking off the plane, he stays close behind me, and just when I’m sure we’re never going to talk about what happened or what I said, he leans in.

‘Did you mean what you said?’ he whispers. ‘Or did you just say it to distract me?’

‘I meant it,’ I say, not daring to turn my head.

‘Good,’ he says, and slips his hand into mine.


End file.
